Q. How much of your Christmas spending will you put on your credit cards?

5 Dec 11

3 Dec 12

All or most of it

23%

26%

A bit more than half

7%

8%

About half

9%

7%

A bit less than half

5%

5%

Not much

17%

10%

None of it

37%

36%

Won’t be buying Christmas gifts

na

4%

Don’t know

3%

4%

41% say they will put at least half their Christmas spending on credit cards – and a further 15% will put some spending on their credit cards.

Those most likely to use credit cards for at least half their spending were aged 35-44 (54%) and those least likely were aged 18-24 (18%). Those on higher incomes were much more likely to use their credit cards for Christmas spending – 55% of those on incomes over $1,600pw said they would put at least half on credit cards compared to only 20% of those on incomes under $600pw.

Q. How much of your Christmas spending do you put on your credit cards?

All or most of it

23%

A bit more than half

7%

About half

9%

A bit less than half

5%

Not much

17%

None of it

37%

Don’t know

3%

39% say they will put at least half their Christmas spending on credit cards – and a further 22% will put some spending on their credit cards.

Those most likely to use credit cards for at least half their spending were aged 25-34 (49%) and those least likely to use credit cards for Christmas spending were aged 18-24 (22%). Those on higher incomes were much more likely to use their credit cards for Christmas spending – 54% of those on incomes over $1,600pw said they would put at least half on credit cards compared to only 18% of those on incomes under $600pw.

41% of those who say they are very concerned about their level of credit card debt and 54% of those who are somewhat concerned say they will put at least half their Christmas spending on credit cards.

Q. How concerned are you about the amount you currently owe on your credit cards?

Very concerned

11%

Somewhat concerned

16%

Not very concerned

27%

Don’t owe anything on credit cards

44%

Don’t know

1%

27% say they are very or somewhat concerned about the amount they owe on their credit cards. Those most concerned were aged 35-44 (35%) and full-time workers (35%). There was little difference across income groups.

12% of those who intend to put more than half their Christmas spending on credit cards say they are very concerned about their current credit card debt and 23% are somewhat concerned.